➜ Answer the study questions below in your Literary History File.
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The Knight is one of the few pilgrims who provide no personal Prologue. The Miller first talks about how drunk he is, the Wife of Bath first outlines her different marriages before telling their story; the Knight, however, just dives straight in. Why do you suppose that is?
In the Middle Ages, people believed that the outward appearance of a person said a great deal about their character. Read the description of the Miller again. What would a medieval person conclude about the Miller's character based on this description?
Before the Wife of Bath dives into her story, she tells something about her personal life, particularly her five marriages. She was first married off as a twelve-year-old to a much older man, but her husband's death (and those of her following husbands) left her a wealthy woman. Her fourth and fifth marriages were to much younger men, and with these she had passionate fights over who had control over the household. These fights the Wife of Bath would win. How do the Wife of Bath's ideas about marriage and the relationship between man and wife resurface in her tale?